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Whooping cough (also known as Pertussis) is an infectious bacterial disease that causes uncontrollable coughing. The name comes from the noise you make when you take a breath after you cough. You may have choking spells or may cough so hard that you vomit.

Anyone can get whooping cough, but it is more common in infants and children. It's especially dangerous in infants. The coughing spells can be so bad that it is hard for infants to eat, drink or breathe.

Before there was a vaccine, whooping cough was one of the most common childhood diseases and a major cause of childhood deaths in the US There are fewer cases today because there are both pertussis-only vaccines and combination vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. If you have whooping cough, treatment with antibiotics may help if given early.

This disease results in high morbidity and mortality in many countries every year. In the United States, 5000-7000 cases are reported each year. Incidence of pertussis has increased steadily since the 1980s. The incidence in 2007 was 3.6/100,000 when 10,454, cases of pertussis were reported.

Whooping cough — known medically as pertussis — is a highly contagious respiratory tract infection. Although it initially resembles an ordinary cold, whooping cough may eventually turn more serious, particularly in infants. Whooping cough is most contagious before the coughing starts. The best way to prevent it is through vaccinations. The childhood vaccine is called DTaP. The whooping cough booster vaccine for adolescents and adults is called Tdap. Both protect against whooping cough, tetanus, and diphtheria.

Pertussis (whooping cough) is very contagious and can cause serious illness―especially in infants who are too young to be fully vaccinated. Make sure your infants and young children get their recommended five shots on time. Adolescent and adult vaccination is also important, especially for families with new infants.

The CDC recommends that every adult 19 to 64 years of age receive one dose of pertussis vaccine. Pertussis vaccine is given in combination with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines (Tdap). Tdap should replace one of the every-10-year booster doses of Td recommended for all adults.

The Joint Commission's Division of Healthcare Quality Evaluation is releasing "Tdap Vaccination Strategies for Adolescents and Adults, Including Health Care Personnel: Strategies from Research and Practice" to help health care organizations of all types (hospitals, long term care facilities, ambulatory settings, home health organizations, etc.) improve Tdap vaccination rates.

In the wake of a bad year for pertussis (whooping cough) in 2010, the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended that healthcare personnel (HCP) get vaccinated against the disease and that employers should foot the bill.

The odds of acquiring pertussis increase 42% every year after children receive the fifth dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine, leading to increasing outbreaks of whooping cough in immunized children, according to a study published in the September 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Lan and his colleagues performed genetic tests of bacterial cultures, grown from samples taken to diagnose patients in clinics across Australia. His team was looking for bacteria with variants of two genes which Lan says make them "mismatched" to the vaccine.

Washington state's worst outbreak of whooping cough in decades has prompted health officials to declare an epidemic, seek help from federal experts and urge residents to get vaccinated amid worry that cases of the highly contagious disease could spike much higher.

During a whooping cough outbreak in California in 2010, immunized children between eight and 12 years old were more likely to catch the bacterial disease than kids of other ages, suggesting that the childhood vaccine wears off as kids get older, according to new research.

Vaccinating women during the postpartum period is one strategy used to protect newborns against pertussis, but an optimal antibody response may not occur fast enough to protect babies during the first few weeks of life, Canadian researchers reported yesterday.

In the wake of a bad year for pertussis (whooping cough) in 2010, the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended today that healthcare personnel (HCP) get vaccinated against the disease and that employers should foot the bill.

Pertussis remains endemic worldwide and is an important public health problem, even in countries with sustained high vaccination coverage. Resurgence of pertussis in the post-vaccination era has been reported in many areas of the world.

The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) reminds healthcare professionals and healthcare consumers that pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, is a serious respiratory illness characterized by an infectious cough. Although most of us were vaccinated against it as children, our ability to fight it off weakens, leaving us once again susceptible as adults. Pertussis is very contagious and can be quite serious, especially for infants less than one year of age.

This report describes the results of that analysis, which indicated that 1) staff members reported 1,032 person-hours spent responding to the outbreak, and 2) the total cost of outbreak response, including overhead, labor, travel, and other costs, was $52,131 (measured in 2008 U.S. dollars). The majority of costs (59%) occurred during an intensive 10-day period, when most of the contact tracing and prophylaxis recommendations were made. The elevated incidence of pertussis and the burden of response placed on health departments warrants exploring the impact of alternative response and chemoprophylaxis strategies.

The number of reported pertussis (whooping cough) cases in Alabama in all ages has increased from 68 in 2008 to 315 in 2009. Already in the first six months of 2010 there have been 93 reported cases of pertussis.

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